Comet Country

Explanation : Moonlight illuminates the landscape and lends a painterly quality to this beautiful photograph of the Absaroka mountain range , located along the Montana-Wyoming border near the USA's Yellowstone National Park. In the foreground lies the North Fork of the Shoshone River. The snow-covered peak rising 10,500 feet on the left is Jim Mountain, while Comet Hale-Bopp graces the western sky. Inspired by painters of the American West, like Fredric Remington, Charles Russell , and George “Dee” Smith, photographer Dewey Vanderhoff of Cody, Wyoming has taken advantage of the double blessings of a bright Moon and a bright comet to produce this breathtaking image .